“Mambo Italiano”
“Mambo Italiano“ is a popular song written by Bob Merrill in 1954 for the American singer Rosemary Clooney. Merrill wrote it under a recording deadline, scribbling hastily on a paper napkin in an Italian restaurant in New York City, and then using the wall pay-phone to dictate the melody, rhythm and lyrics to the studio pianist, under the aegis of the conductor Mitch Miller, who produced the original record.
LYRICS
A girl went back to Napoli
Because she missed the scenery
The native dances and the charming songs
But wait a minute, something’s wrong
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Go, go, go you mixed up Sicialiano
All you Calabraise-a do the mambo like a crazy with a
Hey mambo, don’t want to tarantella
Hey mambo, no more a mozzarella
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Try an enchilada with da fish a bac a lab and then a
Hey goombah, I love a how you dance a rhumbah
But take a some advice paisano
Learn how to mambo
If you gonna be a square
You ain’t a gonna go nowhere
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Go, go, Joe, shake like a Giovanno
Hello kess-a-deetch-a you getta happy in the feets a
When you mambo Iitaliano
Shake-a Baby shake-a cause i love a when you take a me
Mama say “stop-a or I’m gonna go to papa”
And a hey ja drool you don’t a have to go to school
Just make-a wid da beat bambino
It’s a like a vino
Kid you good a lookin’ but you don’t a-know what’s cookin’ till you
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Hey, mambo, mambo Italiano
Ho, ho, ho, you mixed up Siciliano
It’s a so delish a ev’rybody come copisha
How to mambo Italianoooooo!!!
